We are a small team based primarily in Melbourne, Australia, with frequent collaborators located across the globe.
Kevin:Gaming has always been a passion of mine. Especially during the COVID pandemic when I found solace in exploring games as a medium for storytelling. I'm excited to bring my background in filmmaking to the realm of gaming, hoping to create emotional journeys for players, not unlike the impact of films have on their audience.
My focus on game development is narrative design .
We're a bare bones team with a flat structure. Story is at the heart of everything we do, so each project begins with the writer as the project lead, and the programming lead and art lead collaborating directly with the writer with a game-jam approach to rapidly prototype and iterate production, applying Agile methodology. We encourage experimentation and short feedback loop between the leading crew to create a game that we’re all passionate about. It’s only at the production stage where we transition into a larger, more traditional team structure with additional team members and contractors; all working towards a pre-defined and well tested vision evolved throughout the prototyping stage.
We encourage our team members to continue work on any personal projects and even support them with resources where applicable.
We are a very young company and aside for our focus on narrative, emotive journey, we are still finding our niche in the industry. And therefore our games currently in development are a bit different in their own rights.
Gossip Buster is a game inspired by Cluedo and heavily influenced by Life is Strange and Wednesday Addams. Player plays as a high school reporter, solving mystery with her pen and camera on the most trivial cases that actually means the world to the victims.
Monster Factory is a 2D side scrolling puzzle game that teaches some basic concept of programming. It is a comedy series featuring Layman, the laziest boy in the word, who create an army of monster to do his chores. Every puzzle is written with real life application in mind, and every level is motivated by the story suitable for all ages!
Night Rail is a 3D exploration/puzzle game that plays like the Contraband Police but puts you in the seat of a train driver. It aims to confront player in every turns with moral decision like the trolley car dilemma.
Sneak Attack! is a 2D infinite runner where a Ninja embark on a journey through the mystical world to prove himself. This is our first attempt at the game industry and it was started without a strong story in mind. However, it still features some quirky characters and foes!
Not to repeat with the "games we love" section, we believe a good game create transformative changes in the player, no matter how small. Collaborative, social games should make you closer (or further) from your friend. Casual games makes you relax. Adrenaline-filled action, shooting or even sports game gives you the thrill. If a player finishes (or abandons) a game feeling puzzled, and can't figure out what was it all about, then the player didn't perceive the value of the game. Experimental games exists for a reason, but most of us are just to dumb to understand, or maybe we just can't be bothered.
Among all the good games out there, the kind that we want to make are those with a solid story arc. We only have one lifetime each, and we want to present all these different experiences of fictional characters in a succinct way where player can learn about the wisdom and heartbreaks. Stories are the reflection of reality.
Every member of our team can pitch ideas to each other in a game-jam manner, and the writer will then decide if there's enough of a story before we commit the team resources into a game.
Once the writer have completed a pitch, we will then review and approve resources to the game if it aligns with the games we liked. Once a prototype is completed, we will also re-evaluate if we will go into full production or abandon the project.
We want our players to finish our game with the bittersweet feeling of separation, the sense of accomplishment mixed with the sorrow that the player's relationship with the character and the world has come to an end.
We hope to be always lean and agile. Even if we got a hit, we would keep the initial game-jam like approach to new ideas, to allow the raw chemistry of people coming together for prototyping. We believe that no matter how good the track record of a company is, no one will be able to predict the market and demand accurately, so we embrace uncertainty and experimentation.
We also have no ambition in publishing or incubating other company's game. If we have spare resources, we will either dedicate those to our team's well being and personal project, or we can hire people out to help smaller development companies.
Our strategy in the moment is to get a major project up with the help of Epic Mega Grant or Screen Australia. We do not aim for smaller productions nor in-game purchases. We also aim to work with larger publisher instead of self-publishing. We are open to any exclusive deals including Xbox Game Pass. Our first priority is to invest in our reputation in the game industry.
